The Hull Interior

The hull after interior finishing can be seen here.

The Big Flip

With the hull faired and fibreglassed, it was time to turn the damn thing over. Weighing in at 10,000 pounds, it was a tricky operation. The shop features 100 year old trusses, constructed of riveted angle iron and fairly typical of columnless construction of that era. Philadelphia design codes from the early 20th century dictated a 30 pound per square foot snow load. So with 2000 square feet of roof over head, without any snow on it, I had 2000 x 30 = 60,000 pounds of extra capacity up there, 40,000 pounds of which was supported by the trusses and was available for lifting duty. John Brady at the Independence Seaport Museum was good enough to lend me 2 chain hoists to compliment our own. We bought a spool of 3 strand polyester line rated at 3600 pounds of tension and some ABI blocks (good to 3000 pounds) to back up the chain hoists and better distribute the load. All of this will one day find a home in the rigging. With Alice Hershey, Emiliano Rodriguez and Mike Greenberg in attendance, we lifted the starboard side up, until the boat was tipped up on its side. Large planks with steel pipes underneath were placed under the port gunnel so that it could roll freely as we lifted, allowing the port side to slide under the starboard side as we raised the starboard side. Once the boat was at 90 degrees, we began lowering again, setting the keel down on the ground. We then reattached the hoists, and lifted from boat port and starboard gunnels until the boat was upright. The whole operation only took 3 1/2 hours. May she never capsize again.

Jonah pulls. ...

Boards and pipes allow the bottom gunnel to slide out. Block and tackle at the keel

The hull resting safely on the ground. Deeps sighs of relief all around. A beer on the "deck"

Hull Fairing

After the completion of the planking, We commence with final hull fairing. The plan is to have the hull faired, finished and flipped by months end. Other ongoing projects include the rudder (built with Swarthmore Externs Anna Kastner and Jean Dahlquist) and sawing out deckbeams.

Swarthmore externs Anna and Jean loft the rudder onto the blank. The finished rudder.

The sanding begins.